I have tried a Raspberry PI as a movie playback box, and although it can play videos fine locally, it has a very slow network port, so playing HD over the Ethernet does not work. The reason for the slow Ethernet is because it is USB connected inside the PI.
I use a Zotac Zbox myself for movie playback. It also acts as an access point. One minor bad point with the Zbox, it has a fan so rare that you cannot replace it. The most modern Zboxes might not have this problem, but do check before purchase. Another option is just use a laptop with HDMI output. When looking for a good movie playback box I would choose the following requirements: 1) Silent 2) Have the media content across the network. Makes the box by the TV smaller and no HDD noises. 3) Can be made to work with a smart phone remote control app via wifi, thus not needing an infrared remote control or line of sight. 4) Gig Ethernet. 5) Fastest CPU/GPU possible while still having silence. Using GPU for video decode/acceleration is normally less power hungry than a CPU doing the video decode/acceleration. Kind Regards James On 22 April 2014 20:09, Imran Chaudhry <ichaud...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > I'm putting my Xbox systems slowly out to pasture as we move to a hi-def > world. > > I'm after decent hardware to run XBMC on, I've already tried > OpenElec/Raspberry Pi but was not satisfied with it. I've bought a WD > Live Media Player which I am similarly not 100% happy with. > > My requirements are: > > * must have power on/off via remote > * must be small footprint > * menu click sounds > * quick response with no lag between button press and on-screen menu > * able to play hi-def including 1080p via HDMI > * remote that is easy to configure > * at least one USB port > * optical digital audio out nice but not essential > > Do any of you run XBMC on such hardware? > > I've seen a bewildering array of low-cost devices on eBay based on > Android but there seem to be umpteen million variations so it looks > like a minefield to me. > > Thanks! > > -- > Key fingerprint = EF78 310C C517 9564 9ECA 82F6 68FA E621 17E1 5D16 > http://about.me/imranchaudhry > > -- > Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk > Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire > LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk > -------------------------------------------------------------- -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------
